He is the man born in our country who has scored the most goals from a corner kick. He was a striking center who learned to play as a right indicator thanks to the Serbian coach Vladimir Popovi معه, with whom he was a champion with Verdeblanco in 1974.

Angel Maria Torres was nine years old when he had to leave his home town of La Paella to go to live in San Antonio de los Caballeros, Florida (Valle del Cauca), because his father, Camilo Torres, was going to work at the central sugar mill in Castile. There the boy who dreamed of playing ball began on the sidewalk around his house. This is why her mother said: “Batteries with broken shoes and broken pants, we don’t have to buy more.” But the passion triumphed and there were not a few occasions when the protagonist arrived at these messages around midnight, after eternal matches, with torn clothes and shoes without soles.

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He said, “There was no shortage of pilas with rego and flip flops.” The viewer Presence that did not neglect the study. He was a good student who loved mathematics, algebra and geometry. While his classmates didn’t want to see numbers in his humble notebooks, he loved doing all kinds of math. The characters fascinated them, he liked football (still).

The Torres family moved to Cali, and as soon as he reached the age of majority and became legal for him, Angel Maria began working for a textile company. He helped the family economy and had more freedom to walk the football path as a professional career. He played in the games his older brother took to her. He emerged as the central striker and transferred to Barrios Onidos. Victor Silorio, Deportivo Cali scout at the time, wanted him for the high school divisions and the talented youngster sold his sports rights to the aforementioned club for $ 3,000.

In 1970, Torres played the National Games with Valle del Cauca, was a top scorer, and Santa Fe and Deportivo Pereira offered him $ 40,000 to take it away. He was filled with anger that he had already signed up with Cali and complained about the Verdiblanca Foundation, which had not gone to their sports headquarters for four months. One day he returned convinced that he would win a lot thanks to his goals and enjoyed the process until he reached the professional team, although he almost died at sea to go to play some matches on the island of Gorgona.

(Pedro Zappe: Between sugar and clay)

“I was in the small sections, we went on a tour there and on the way back the ship ran aground and sank. We almost stayed there. In 1971, the man who wore the Colombian national team shirt at the South American U-20 Championship in Asunción (Paraguay), and who represented his country in the same The year at the Pan American Games, fortunately, the entire team was able to return safely. ” In Cali and in 1972 he was at the Olympic Games in Munich (Germany).

Valle del Cauca liked to play in the offensive position and “dribble the goalkeeper to put me in the net with the ball and everything”, but his footballing concepts changed thanks to Vladimir Popovic, one of the Yugoslav coaches who came to Colombian football at the time.

In the presence of Jorge Ramirez Gallego (the number one goalscorer in Deportivo Cali history), Torres had to sprint to the right wing and position himself as captain in that aspect. Popovi showed him the movements he should perform in the position and ÑatoAs they said on the team, he responded with historic shows and the Sugar Box was a champion of local rental in 1974.

With a Cali shirt Ñato He was happy, because in addition to playing football, he was also involved with the humans who filled him with laughter. And even in games. In one against Deportes Tolima in Ibagué, Germán Burrito Gonzalez noticed that Hebert Barona was out of focus and yelled at him, “Heyber, long live the game.” Barona answered, shouting “Long live!” Torres couldn’t contain his laughter in that anecdote they later commented on in the locker room and in conversations with friends when professional football was really an memory.

In 1976, Carlos Salvador Bilardo came to the technical direction of Deportivo Cali and carried out his extensive talks on the board, video explanations and some decisions made by Ñato Not understood. In 1977, during a game in Pasquale Guerrero against Cucuta Deportivo, the footballer left the field, extremely furious, following a decision by Narigon (the title of Argentine strategist who was World Champion in Mexico 1986). “In the first half things weren’t going well for me, but in the second half I improved and even scored. Unfortunately he took me out. I didn’t like that and decided to leave the field immediately and go home.”

With Bilardo, Cali faced Boca Juniors in the 1978 Copa Libertadores final. They were tied 0-0 in Pascual. At La Bombonera Torres he didn’t easily take corner kicks: he couldn’t take the proper momentum to hit the ball, because the cops with the dogs were stationed there. The Argentine national team was ahead, crushing 4-0 and winning the title. and that is Ñato He specialized in such standing balls, because he, along with the Argentine, Ernesto Kokucho Alvarez kept training them after training. Witnesses of those days say they scored nine goals out of ten Olympic attempts.

This has been transferred to the realm of truth. The Argentine, the record holder in football, scored nine goals in this way (eight with Cali and one with Emelec Ecuador). Angel Maria, five years old. One of them was in a historic match against Atlético Nacional, at the end of the 1978 tournament. The soccer team took the lead with a goal from famous striker Oswaldo Marcial Pallavicino. In the last minute, a corner kick for Kaley. Ñato program He adjusted the ball, putting the perfect effect on it with his right boot and turning on a new goal, which gave Valle del Cauca the subtitle (the champion was Millonarios) and qualify for Libertadores 1979.

(“Checho” Angulo: God, Family, and Football)

Torres played this continental tournament, taking offers from Independiente (Argentina) and Santos (Brazil), but Alex Gouraibe, the legendary president of Cali, was not allowed to leave the club until 1982, when he spent a short stint in Santa Fe and Milanarios. . In 1983 he returned to the Sugar Box and in 1985 he retired with Cucuta Deportivo. “By the year 86, I had arranged with a manager from Deportes Quindío, but he had arrived unfortunately Czech Garcia, who told me he was calling me. “I’m still waiting,” said Torres, who has no good memories of the Colombian national team.

“In 1974 and 75 he was playing better than all the right strikers in the country, where there were very good players: Wellington (Ortiz), Ernesto Diaz, ten Castañeda … but he was the best coach (Efraín Crocodile Sánchez) He didn’t call me in the first place. He did that when someone was injured. So I reluctantly went, and told him I didn’t want to be there and came to my team, ”explained Ato Torres, who has not suffered from retirement. Later he was a physical education teacher and a coach for high schools in Cali and worked in a notary’s office, because a Verdiblanco fan He wanted to be there as a partner.

Currently, Ángel María Torres is dedicated to watching football. Fans of Manchester City and Barcelona. The one who needs the unbalanced extremes, as it were. This Saturday he is watching the match in which his beloved Deportivo Cali will seek to secure qualification for the next stage of the league. A game in which your mind will repeat the agonizing Olympic goal it scored in 1978 against Atlético Nacional.

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